Rootes Maidstone

This car showroom and workshops complex was built in 1938–39 to designs by Howard and Souster, an architectural firm that specialised in industrial and commercial buildings and undertook several commissions for Rootes Ltd.

The building has a steel-framed and reinforced concrete structure with walls of brick faced with reconstituted-stone blocks, now painted white. The roof is of reinforced concrete and steel frame with metal sheeting. Floors are reinforced concrete finished with terrazzo, rubber and grano. Windows are steel casements.

The complex follows an irregular L-shaped plan. The western block faces Mill Street and contains the showroom, offices (now a snooker club) and car storage; this block is known as Len House. The eastern block, set back from Mill Road to create a courtyard space where an island filling station was originally located, houses workshops and an administration block and faces onto Len Pond.

The West Block (Len House)

Built in the Moderne style, this two-storey block has a flat roof with parapet (now capped in folded metal sheet) to the front and a saw-tooth roof with corrugated covering to the rear. The ground floor features a double-height showroom frontage with polished black stone stall-riser and integral fascia band, now covered by modern signage. At first floor, a horizontal band of windows is interrupted by a central triangular tower that rises from a canopy over the main showroom entrance. A string course connects the window heads and sills throughout.

To the north, a single bay provides street access to the first floor through a pair of panelled timber doors. Above the door, applied lettering on a simple square-edged surround spells 'LEN HOUSE', above which runs a band of horizontal reeding. The first-floor window is surrounded by a square-edged architrave with an expressed keystone and reeded sill.

The Mill Street elevation curves round into the south elevation, which provides a secondary canopied entrance to the showroom and vehicular access to the car store at the rear.

The East Block

This block rises over two floors, but a mezzanine level at the west end results in two rows of upper windows on the west elevation. As with the west block, horizontal bands of windows have string courses connecting their heads and sills. The west elevation provides access to the administration block with a canopy over the door, and vehicular access into the workshops behind. This elevation curves round into the south elevation.

At either end of the south elevation, a projecting bay with raised parapet and pierced balconette stands in front of the ground-floor window. Between these projecting bays are five bays with a continuous string course at window heads and sills, either side of a central bay with pronounced architrave and pierced balconette. An original entrance door into the administration block survives at the far west of this elevation.

The east elevation has been rendered and the fenestration largely blocked or altered, with a new central entrance and canopy installed. The north elevation is of untreated brick with concrete banding at first floor and roof level. Most original openings remain, though some alteration has occurred; this elevation is of lesser interest.

The east block roof is flat to the south, with ridge and furrow covered in corrugated sheeting to the north. Extractor units are mounted on the ridges.

Interior

The showroom has a modern interior of generally little architectural interest, though a curved mezzanine viewing gallery (now enclosed) remains in the south-east corner. The former first-floor offices, now a snooker hall, have been fitted with a Victorian-style interior not of special interest. The car storage area to the rear of the showroom is largely open in plan and fully open to the roof.

At ground floor and mezzanine level, the administration block is partially open-plan and partially subdivided into small offices with non-structural partitioning. The workshops are largely open plan, with the vehicular ramp between ground and first floor forming a principal feature. The concrete and steel structure remains undisguised: at ground floor, concrete cross beams rest on large columns supporting the first floor above; at first floor, the workshops are open to the roof. The far east of the block is separated off with a modern office interior not of special interest.

Several original staircases survive throughout the building, mainly characterised by curved steel-strip balusters with wood or metal handrails.

Historical Context

The Rootes motorcar showroom and workshop was built in 1937–38 on a site adjacent to a mill pond on the River Len that had formerly been occupied by a tannery. Rootes Ltd had acquired the tannery buildings in 1917, later demolishing them to make way for this new complex of showroom, filling station, workshops and offices. When it opened in April 1938, the showroom was considered the largest and most up-to-date in Kent. At night, 700 feet of neon tubing outlined the frontage and spelled out the name 'ROOTES' on the tower above the main entrance.

Rootes began in 1895 when William Rootes Senior opened a cycle and repair shop in Goudhurst, Kent. The business soon moved into motor cars, with growing success taking him to new larger premises in Hawkhurst and then Maidstone, where his son William was placed in charge. In 1917, William was demobilised from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve to start the first aero engine repair organisation in the country. At this point the old tannery adjacent to the Len mill pond in Mill Street was obtained by the Rootes firm. Previously operating as a private firm, Rootes became Rootes Ltd, The Len Engineering Works, Maidstone, formed for the purpose of overhauling and repairing aero engines for the government.

By the mid-1920s, Rootes had become Britain's largest motor retailer and had moved into coach-building, acquiring in 1925 the firm of Thrupp and Maberly, coachbuilders for Humber, Daimler and Rolls-Royce. In the late 1920s, Rootes Ltd moved into car manufacture, forming Rootes Securities and making a successful bid for Humber-Hillman-Commer. The Hillman Minx, launched in 1931, became an outstanding success and by the late 1930s was the most popular light car in the world. In the mid-1930s, the famous names of Sunbeam, Clement Talbot and Karrier all became part of the Rootes family. By 1937, Rootes controlled eight manufacturing companies, seven distributing companies, and was also controlling one of the largest export businesses in the British motor industry.

By the late 1930s, manufacturing had moved away from the Maidstone site, so the Len Engineering Works was rebuilt as a model super service station. In the preceding years, the motor car had become more accessible to the middle classes; the new showroom on Mill Street prided itself on offering 'models for the masses and millionaires'. The motor industry had embraced modernism in its architecture during the 1930s. The opportunities to exploit new materials and technologies allowed for an architectural expression linked to both the ideals of the motor industry and the aspirations of their customers. The size of the Rootes showroom floor, uninterrupted by supporting columns, combined with an elegant, streamlined exterior glowing with neon light, would have made an impressive sight. The Rootes complex was referred to as a 'palace of modern motoring'.

The post-war years saw continued national and international success for Rootes, but the 1960s brought change. In financial difficulty, aid came from Chrysler, who eventually acquired a majority share and the company became Chrysler United Kingdom. When Chrysler pulled out of Britain, ownership of the Rootes showroom and workshops passed to the Peugeot-Talbot Motor Company. The site is now owned by Robins and Day Ltd and continues to operate as a car showroom and repair garage.

The building is listed for its special architectural interest as an example of a Modernist motorcar showroom, office and workshops complex that retains a significant proportion of its original fabric. Its grand scale, town-centre location and picturesque setting adjacent to the Len mill pond distinguish it from other buildings associated with the motorcar industry during this phase of early motoring. It is also a prominent manifestation of a hugely successful British car manufacturer, built in a period when the expansion of car ownership was having a revolutionary impact on the physical and social fabric of the nation.